How long to recover from a thin content penalty?

TurboCharge

TurboCharge

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Has anyone recovered from such a penalty and if so, how long, ballpark, does it take to recover from such a penalty?

Lets say your website was severely penalized back in August of last year for having thin content. You realize the problem this year on the 22nd of March, and you fix the entire site by adding the necessary rudimentary content to all pages over the course of 3 weeks.

How long should you expect time to pass before your website recovers? Is it many months? Should it be within a few weeks?
 
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You will need a Core update to fully recover.

If you made significant, effective changes you could recover from one update to the next.

However, if you have a track record of going more and more down for several past updates, it might take more.
 
tiiberius said:
You will need a Core update to fully recover.

If you made significant, effective changes you could recover from one update to the next.

However, if you have a track record of going more and more down for several past updates, it might take more.
Click to expand...
I made big, significant changes to the entire site since March 22nd. I think there hasn't been a core update since that time to reflect those changes but I did see a 2x in traffic value since then. I am still nowhere near my previous high (additional 2x in traffic value), when my website was in fact thin.

I also changed site structure, where most pages were 2-3 layers deep instead of the more logical 1-2. Google is still using the old paths and is messing up the index, and as of the past 4 days, I've lost 30% in traffic value and 75% of the outgoing clicks. This last decline is demoralizing.

What do I make of this?
 
TurboCharge said:
I also changed site structure, where most pages were 2-3 layers deep instead of the more logical 1-2. Google is still using the old paths and is messing up the index, and as of the past 4 days, I've lost 30% in traffic value and 75% of the outgoing clicks. This last decline is demoralizing.
Click to expand...
I can only say that Google is very cruel at the moment.
 
TurboCharge said:
I made big, significant changes to the entire site since March 22nd. I think there hasn't been a core update since that time to reflect those changes but I did see a 2x in traffic value since then. I am still nowhere near my previous high (additional 2x in traffic value), when my website was in fact thin.

I also changed site structure, where most pages were 2-3 layers deep instead of the more logical 1-2. Google is still using the old paths and is messing up the index, and as of the past 4 days, I've lost 30% in traffic value and 75% of the outgoing clicks. This last decline is demoralizing.

What do I make of this?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can get these partial improvements because algorithm is not idle.

But to get full effect, you need a Core update or two.
 
I wouldn't bother at this stage!

Search engines are being replaced with LLM's.

You may be trying to optimise for something that will not exists in 12 months.
 
Remove thin content pages or improve the content. Recovery can take some time, but sometimes you'll need to wait for one or two core updates for full impact. So, clean things up and be patient.
 
dandan594594 said:
I wouldn't bother at this stage!

Search engines are being replaced with LLM's.

You may be trying to optimise for something that will not exists in 12 months.
Click to expand...
LLMs and search engines offer two different services and as long as there are online services, people (and LLMs) will want to search the web to find them. LLMs will replace informational queries and may even replace search engines but they won't kill commercial queries. Not until they completely replace businesses anyway.
 
Recovery from a thin content penalty typically takes 1 to 3 months after fixing, depending on crawl frequency and content quality.
 
You should start seeing traffic return in about 6–8 weeks after you fix your pages and ask Google to recrawl them. Use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to speed it up. Keep posting helpful content and you’ll see steady growth.
 
If Google rolls out a core update or a helpful content update, your site should start showing signs of recovery during that update window.
 
NoSoup4U said:
What is a core update?
Click to expand...
it's an update that can cover any topic (but usually content and user signals from what I've noticed), as opposed to spam updates that (usually) cover backlinks.

You can find google's official explanation (although, as ambiguous as ever, of course) here:

https://developers.google.com/search/updates/core-updates

Also, if you wish to keep up with google's official updates you can check the site below. I don't know what good it will do to you as google - as usual - never say what they did (and sometimes they don't even say that they've done something until it's too late), but you can at least get official confirmation that google have been up to something :)

https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history
 
As already mentioned here, you’ll need to wait for the next Google Core update. If your penalty is not related to the HCU and you’ve truly addressed all the underlying issues, it will be lifted.

But in my experience, webmasters often misunderstand what Google actually means by original and genuinely helpful content. What usually happens is that one version of thin content gets replaced with another version of thin content - just longer. As a result, Google doesn’t lift the penalty during the next update, or even the one after that..

Another reason is that if the site has many pages where content was replaced, Google might not index them in time. And lately, we have to admit, Google has become less willing to index new pages - unless they contain truly original and genuinely valuable content.
 
TurboCharge said:
Has anyone recovered from such a penalty and if so, how long, ballpark, does it take to recover from such a penalty?

Lets say your website was severely penalized back in August of last year for having thin content. You realize the problem this year on the 22nd of March, and you fix the entire site by adding the necessary rudimentary content to all pages over the course of 3 weeks.

How long should you expect time to pass before your website recovers? Is it many months? Should it be within a few weeks?
Click to expand...
Should be done till next update and many update occured since you posted this. S o, do to have an update for this ? Did you recover based on those changes.
 
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